After another wildfire began on Thursday, paired with multiple blazes throughout the greater Los Angeles area, the NFL has announced that the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams Wild Card game has been moved from SoFI Stadium to State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals.
— NFL345 (@NFL345) January 10, 2025
Earlier this week, the NFL announced that it was ready to proceed with the game at SoFi Stadium. Since then, a series of wildfires have burned over 20,000 acres of land as the city of Los Angeles and its first responders race to contain the blaze and evacuate residences from the affected areas.
During the Rams' Thursday practice, the Kenneth fire, affecting the Woodland Hills area became a concern for the team as not only is the fire within five miles of the team's practice facility, many members of the Rams' organization live within the affected community.
The Rams canceled their open locker room, allowing their staff to go home following the conclusion of team activities. At this moment, it is unknown how the Rams will proceed with their week moving forward.
The team was set to have media availability on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday but as expected, those plans are now tentatively postponed.
While the NFL has only publicly stated that they're moving the game "in the interest of public safety," it should be noted that the air quality in Los Angeles does not meet the standard in order to play as well as a potential traffic issue due to the mass evacuations.
The Cardinals do have experience hosting other organizations. The San Francisco 49ers spent their final weeks of the 2020 NFL season in Arizona after the city of Santa Clara forbaide any sports or activiites to be played due to the COVID pandemic.
State Farm Stadium also recently hosted the Fiesta Bowl on December 31st between Penn State and Boise State.
Tickets for Monday's matchup are set to go on sale at 10 am Pacific time for Rams season ticket holders and at noon for the general public on Friday. The game is set to be played at 5 pm Pacific time, Monday evening.
If the Rams win on Monday and the Packers and Commanders are victorious as well, Los Angeles would host another game in the Divisional Round.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/rams/ as BREAKING: Rams-Vikings Game Moved To Arizona.